Electronic messages or e-mails have become an increasingly accepted form of communication in modern telecommunications networks in both the business sphere and the personal sphere.
FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a conventional telecommunications network of this kind for sending electronic messages, N being a network such as the internet, for example. Conventionally connected to this network N is a plurality of telecommunications terminals E1 to E3 in the form of, for example, personal computers (PCs), which conventionally have what is called an “e-mail client” as a transmitter and receiver of electronic messages. Known SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) e-mail clients are, for example, Lotus Notes™, Microsoft Outlook™ and so on, and they are stored locally as what are called “application programs” in the telecommunications terminals E1 to E3.
A user or one of the telecommunications terminal E1 to E3 has, as a rule, what is called an “e-mail box” or “mailbox” on a central server S. That is where all incoming and outgoing electronic messages or e-mails are temporarily stored and forwarded to appropriate further messaging servers (mail servers) (not shown) in the network N. When electronic messages or e-mails are received from this mail server S, conventionally all temporarily stored electronic messages are also filed on the local telecommunications terminals E1 to E3 or their associated local e-mail clients. The size of the central mailbox or central messaging box available to the user is normally limited. So if a user receives extensive file attachments to a particular e-mail or electronic message, these are filed both in the central mailbox and in the local e-mail client of the telecommunications terminal E1 to E3.
To enable particular data to be otherwise accessed, each user will store the file attachments of a particular electronic message or e-mail again in his user file system, to which he conventionally has personal access rights. As a result, however, the file attachment is now stored twice or three times, being filed both in the central mailbox, in the local mailbox or the e-mail client, and in the user file system. This results in higher costs owing to the increased memory required. If, on the other hand, the user removes the file attachments from the electronic message, vital information is lost, for example the location where the attachments have been stored, or the relationship between the explanatory text of the electronic message and the file attachment.